ZhiMing Cheng
- Position: PhD Student - Department of Economics
Contact Details
Student information
ZhiMing Cheng is also a PhD student
- Load: PhD Student Full Time
- Principal supervisor: Associate Professor Melanie Beresford
- Associate supervisor: Doctor Fei Guo
- Date of submission: 01/01/2011
- Thesis title: Urban Poverty Among Laid-Off Workers in the Chinese State Enterprise Reform
- Abstract: This thesis examines urban poverty in provincial China and more specifically the effects of state sector reform towards state workers since the 1990s, with special reference to deteriorating industrial bases in western and northeastern China. The changes in individual, household and community circumstances are reviewed within the context of local economic history, state-owned enterprise reform, labour retrenchment and emerging poverty through a consideration of the available literature and theories and a clarification of methodological approaches to poverty.
The principal argument of the study is that urban poverty in China should be studied in a multidimensional framework beyond the monetary standards. An overview of the conventional and recently emerged alternative approaches to poverty and their results is provided. Drawn from secondary sources and first-hand data, the study attempts a more complete delineation of economic, social and political factors as determinants of layoffs, poverty and community deprivation. In the empirical sections, a decomposition of poverty across socio-economic factors, a family study approach and a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods are applied.
The thesis also demonstrates the importance of including laid-off workers in research and policy-making processes, which is essential to the understanding of the mechanics of poverty and the elimination of poverty.